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Revelstoke Year in Review 2013 – Part three

This summer, Revelstoke School District superintendent Anne Cooper retired after nearly 14 years with the district. Anne’s career highlights in Revelstoke include construction of two new schools, improved early childhood education and creating neighbourood learning centres.

Revelstoke Adventure Park, the proposal for a large outdoor adventure park in the Greeley area near Revelstoke, has been dealt a blow after provincial authorities rejected the proponent’s application last week.

However, RAP spokesperson Jason Roe said the development group will continue on with the development concept after they get an opportunity to assess in detail the reasons why the application was rejected. Roe said their avenues could include a revision, resubmission or an appeal, but it was too early to say since he is still gathering information on the reasons for the rejection.

“I don’t have all the information,” Roe told the Times Review, saying he’d just heard the news last week. He said having issues red-flagged is “part of the process.”

Nine issues have been identified by provincial authorities, Roe said. They include issues such as First Nations consultations, roadway engineering, highway access and egress, and proximity to the Revelstoke watershed in the Greeley area.

Nobody has a greater personal stake in train safety than the people who drive them. The engineers and conductors who guide the trains out of Revelstoke and up into the Rocky Mountains deal with the risks day in, day out.

As part of our ongoing rail safety series, the Times Review spoke with Revelstoke rail personnel to hear their concerns.

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One is inadequate or improper marshalling, train engineers said. Marshalling refers to the act of putting the trains together, composing them of their constituent wheat cars, box cars, chemical containers, potash cars, specialized cargo carriers and so on.

The drive to make trains longer and therefore reduce the number of crews has led to unsafer trains. Much, much longer and heavier trains are part of the issue, especially in the mountain passes through Revelstoke. The problems are compounded by extreme winter mountain weather.

A Revelstoke man was sentenced to nine years in prison for horrific crimes agains a child.

The man, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban designed to protect the identity of the victim, was sentenced to six years in prison for committing incest, and an additional three years for making child pornography.

The sentencing, which took place at the Revelstoke Courthouse on Thursday, Aug. 8, raised questions about the role of the RCMP and Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) in protecting the victim, as the accused’s interest in young children was first made known to authorities in 2006.

It’s gagging strong. That’s how Southside residents described the sewer odour wafting from the sewage treatment lagoons located between Southside and the industrial park.

After 15 years of complaining, they’re fed up and want something done about it.

About a dozen attended an impromptu rally at the City of Revelstoke’s public works facility on Monday morning, where they met with city engineering director Mike Thomas and public works operations manager Darren Komonoski.

Mom Beckie Campbell lives in the Oscar Street trailer park. She helped organize the gathering. She worries about the health of her toddler Hailey.

“It’s years of frustration building up and nothing’s changing. It’s the health effects I’m worried about. My kids grew up there. I’ve got a two-year-old – she [can’t] be out at night. It’s terrible. We can’t open our windows to cool off our houses,” Campbell told Thomas and Komonoski.

Others said they couldn’t hang their laundry or barbecue when the stink wells up in the summer.

Many said they’d complained to city hall many times, but were essentially dismissed by city officials.

Despite investing significant city staff time to develop a comprehensive livestock bylaw that was presented at a planning committee meeting in April of this year, Revelstoke City Council has bailed out on the plan, saying completing the job would be too expensive.

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But at Revelstoke City Council’s Aug. 27 meeting, Coun. Chris Johnston pushed for a “simple” bylaw that would allow backyard chickens soon, and exclude all other living creatures previously listed on the livestock policy.

Thompson Rivers University is considering offering a university-level snowmobile and ATV adventure tourism training program in Revelstoke. Although there are snowmobile and ATV safety courses available, the TRU ‘mechanized adventure tourism training program’ is thought to be the first university-level certificate program of its kind in Canada. Students would graduate as certified snowmobile or ATV guides, and would also study the tourism business.

Iain Stewart-Patterson is a senior lecturer in the Adventure Studies Department at Thompson Rivers University. He said the idea came about as part of TRU’s efforts to develop an adventure tourism training program in Revelstoke. That effort has been covered in past Times Review stories, but the snowmobiling and ATV elements are new.

Stewart-Patterson said Revelstoke was the natural choice. “There’s nothing else out there. There appears to be the need within the snowmobile industry.” he said.

“It just came charging at us,” Van Leur said of the Sunday afternoon attack. She was out with her two small dogs (the other’s a Jack Russell) and was walking on the riverside path near Wilson Street and the Big Eddy Bridge when the dog charged them.

Van Leur had little time to react; she tried to yank the dogs up by their leashes, but couldn’t manage it in time.

“She just rag-dolled her,” Van Leur said of the attack. “It only had one intention and that was to kill my dog today.”

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More than one person called the RCMP. Van Leur said she wants the situation dealt with. The dog, she said, was roaming free and had no enclosure, no fence and no tether. At the busy pedestrian intersection by the Big Eddy Bridge, it’s a recipe for disaster.

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Area residents said they see people coming and going into particular cabins, and that police cars and ambulances are a common sight. Residents wonder why city officials and the RCMP can’t seem to get a lid on the drug situation.

The area, Blakney said, was the subject of active patrols and an “ongoing” investigation.

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